March 08, 2011

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three-- in 1909

JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post

No, this really isn't a time tunnel to London in 1909 aboard the <6> train down Lexington Ave picking up speed from the Pelham Bay Park Station. No, it didn't travel back in time from the 1974 or from the great movie The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (and definitely not from 2009's far-inferior John Travolta remake of that Walter Matthau/Martin Balsam classic).

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was a work of fiction, a book and movie about thugs hijacking a New York City subway train--complications ensue. This image above shows a similar case, the Tottenham Affair, where robbing murderers--two "Russian Anarchists run amok"-- hijacked an electric tram after their rampage, fending off the police, who pursued in another tram. The episode lasted for a while, the two robbers winding up dead shortly thereafter.

The image at top is not opening a hole in the space-time continuum--it was the illustration of a functioning Leyden jar, found in a work by Peter van Musschenbroek (1692-1761) published in 1745.

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By coincidence the same issue of the Illustrated London News is on display in a temporary exhibition on the Tottenham Outrage at the Museum of London Docklands. Worth visiting, if you happen to be in London in the next few weeks (http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Special/LondonUnderSiege.htm).
My compliments on running such an interesting blog and bookshop - as a history of science graduate in London, I wish there were something similar this side of the Atlantic :)